Aprendizagem do profissional de saúde na web: perfis, percepções e representações sociais

Abstract

In the field of continuing education in the health area, different initiatives may be named that aim at preparing professionals with the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). However, little is known yet about Web use by health professionals as a formal learning strategy, let alone when dealing with the informal learning. It can be perceived that the actions in the field of education with the use, and, especially, to the use, of technology as a learning tool are still made in a very intuitive way, using a hit and miss method, given the very evolution of technology in a short period of time. Thus, the overall objective of this research is to understand the profile, perceptions and social representations on learning using the Web of doctors, nurses and dentists, and a possible influence of such use in daily work. To achieve the defined goal, we used the qualitative and quantitative methodology through the use of an online questionnaire with closed and open questions, answered by 277 students of the Specialization Course in Family Health offered by the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) center at the Open University of the Unified Health System (UNA-SUS). For the analysis of the closed questions we used descriptive statistics and nonparametric bivariate tests. The analysis of the open questions was made in the light of the theory of social representations with use of the techniques of content analysis and free evocations. The survey results were presented in three papers for presentation in events and four articles submitted for publication in high quality academic journals. Based on the results, we can highlight that there is a concern that the simple consumption of information is justifying the use of the internet to the subjects, and making this use restricted to it, in lieu of the educational possibilities of cyberculture. We believe the development of actions that support a more reflective practice is necessary, in order to reverse a possible reduced use of the potential of ICTs.